


Compliment

by QuantumAbyss_mal (lonestarjdv)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Allura Lives!, Growing Old Together, Kids and Grandkids, Kissing, M/M, Old Age, Old Married Couple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2020-09-16
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:08:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26499160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lonestarjdv/pseuds/QuantumAbyss_mal
Summary: Prompt 61: Elderly sheith reflect on old days.Bonuses: cool grandpa keith and shiro who can still kick ass in their old age, terrible jokes, allura can still lift them both up with one handKeith and Shiro get into trouble on a diplomatic mission.
Relationships: Keith/Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 31
Kudos: 77
Collections: Sheith Prompt Party 2020





	Compliment

“Easy, she said. A cakewalk, she said. Remind me to teach my mother what cakewalk means,” Keith mutters. 

“There _was_ cake,” Shiro confirms, wiping icing away from the corner of his mouth as he and Keith walk quickly back to the suite where their family is staying. 

“You could use a little less cake,” Keith replies, poking playfully at Shiro’s tummy. 

Shiro swats his hand away. 

“You _had_ to say something about the ambassador’s hair.”

“It was a compliment, Shiro. That was a high-quality hairpiece.” 

Shiro just looks askance at his husband, running a hand through his own hair. The spot where it’s thinning in the back is barely discernible unless you knew where to look. Shiro still couldn’t banish thoughts of his maternal grandfather and his awful combover. Maybe they should have gotten the name of the toupee maker. 

Keith pulls Shiro back into the present. “Getting self-conscious over there golden boy?”

“We can’t all be born with fur in our genetic code,” Shiro snipes, looking longingly at Keith’s thick locks, more silver than black now, plaited just so down his back. 

“Mr. President, Commander Kogane,” a Coalition secret service agent interrupts. “Your family is prepped and will rendezvous at the space port.”

Ezor stands behind the guard and parrots his words silently, her eyes rolling. 

Keith shakes his head. There is no point trying to rein her in.

“Thank you, lieutenant. We’ll continue with our security detail from here.” Keith nods toward where Ezor, Zethrid, and Acxa skulk behind a column. 

As they turn to depart, the agent holds out a PADD. “We have your family on comms, if you’d like to speak to them.”

Keith starts to decline, but Shiro is already making grabby hands for the device. The agent hands it over while simultaneously guiding them down the hall. 

Their oldest grandchild looms on the screen. “What did Grandpa Keith do this time?”

“I resent that,” Keith says over Shiro’s shoulder, jostling him as they continue to move toward the exit. 

“Nothing too serious. You guys are all safe?”

“Yeah. Mom is upset she didn’t get to hike to the sulfur pools, but Dad says we’ll find something cool to do on the stopover point.” Another tiny set of eyes appears in the corner of the screen and the thirteen-year-old moves to the side. 

“Gwanpa Shiwo. When we gon swim?” 

“Oh sweetie. I know. I’m so sorry. We probably won’t swim today. But I promise we’ll go swimming real soon.” 

“We’re not going swimming? What’s the point of being president if you can’t even go swimming?! Ugh, this vacation is the worst,” says a third voice, the accompanying grandchild pushing between the other two. 

“Kiki!” a parental voice warns from the background.

‘Well it does!” the kid yells back.

Shiro looks at three sets of expectant eyes. “I know you guys are disappointed. This certainly didn’t end the way Grandpa Keith and I planned, but we’ll see you real soon, and we’ll find a way to go swimming, and hiking, and whatever it was your Dad wanted to do.” 

The kids all nod. 

“Remember—“ starts Shiro.

“Patience yields focus,” all the kids sing-song in chorus. The oldest rolls his eyes. “We know grandpa.” He smiles and the screen cuts to black.

Shiro hands off the datapad and looks at Keith as they speedwalk down the hall. He can hear Keith’s ankle click every third step. “Why don’t kids like that patience thing anymore? When you were his age, you were all about that.” 

Keith eyes Shiro. “Shiro, I was all about  _ you. _ You could have told me that wearing my shirt backward was the key to success and tags would have scraped my collarbone for the rest of my life.”

Shiro looks a little like a foundational element of his identity has been shaken. Keith rushes to add, “Although I did get a lot of benefit from patience yields focus. You remember that time we were stranded with Black and Red and whatever those toothy-panther-things were?”

“How could I forget? That was when I realized I loved you.” 

“Wait, what?” Keith comes to a full stop in the hallway and Acxa, Ezor, and Zethrid pull up in alarm. 

“Yeah, you don’t remember?” Shiro stops and turns to look at him. 

Keith looks skeptical. “I don’t remember the ‘you realizing you loved me’ part. How have we not talked about this?” 

“I’m sure we have.” Shiro says dismissively. He turns to start walking again, shaking his head, and Keith sputters but follows. 

“No, I would absolutely remember. I’ve heard about a million times the story of how Lance and Pidge single-handedly torched an entire Voltron on Ice show--which I honestly didn’t even want to hear the first time--but I have never heard this ‘I realized I loved you the second time you saved my life’ story.”

“Oh, yeah? Well, that was it. You and Black saving me from space panthers. And we sat by the fire, and I loved you.” Shiro is very matter-of-fact, perfunctory, like he’s reading a grocery list. He shrugs without even turning around.

“You certainly had a weird way of showing it,” Keith grumbles behind him, despite knowing well for many years that Shiro loves him. 

“I guess I say ‘realized,’ but that’s in hindsight. Looking back I recognize the feeling as love. I didn’t know at the time that that was what I was feeling. It wasn’t the same as how I felt about Adam. I mistook it for pride. Like you were a worthy replacement.” Shiro stops and turns in the hall and Keith nearly runs into him. Acxa, Ezor, and Zethrid stop again and Acxa sighs in defeat. Shiro reaches for Keith’s hands and squeezes his fingers. 

“I know now. Have known for a long time. I didn’t ever want you to replace me. I wanted you to stand beside me.” 

Keith starts to tear up looking at his husband, this new piece of information reminding him of everything they’ve been through together. Everything they still have to look forward to. 

“Alright grandpas, enough with the reminiscing, let’s move it along,” Acxa cuts in, scanning the hall for unfriendlies and stepping around the two men to herd them toward the door. 

Keith would take offense, but they  _ are _ grandpas. 

As they step through the door of the diplomatic complex into the midday sun they’re met with a volley of warning fire. 

Keith steps to the side and drags Shiro to the ground with him, protecting Shiro’s body with his own. “I said it was a NICE hairpiece,” Keith hisses, and despite the trouble they’re in, he feels Shiro laugh beneath him. He looks up to see Acxa directing her team to neutralize the planet’s security forces. Soon there’s a series of muffled groans and Acxa signals that they’re ready to move again. Keith stands and turns to offer Shiro a hand up. His suit with its coalition lapel pin is made for negotiating and receptions, not fleeing and fighting, and there’s already a hole in the knee. Keith tsks, then pulls Shiro along behind the rest of their team.

They’re halfway to their craft when another team of planetary guards blocks their route. They turn in all directions but find they’re surrounded. Keith’s shoulders slump. He was really hoping he wouldn’t have to find out what prison on this planet looked like. 

And then, miracle of miracles, a hotheaded guard throws a punch. At Zethrid, of all people. 

Keith hears the hum of Shiro’s arm powering up and drops into a battle stance. This group of guards doesn’t appear to be armed. Their briefing said that this planet eschewed weapons of any sort, which seems disingenuous after the warning fire at the door. It’s been a while since they’ve had the opportunity for hand-to-hand, and Keith rolls his right shoulder. It grinds, but loosens more than he expected. 

Zethrid’s response to the poorly-considered punch is to toss the guard back into his teammates. Rather than fall back, they surge forward. 

Shiro and Keith exchange a pitying look. Poor training. 

Keith looks to Acxa, who confirms with a nod that Keith and Shiro should fight rather than group inside of their security detail’s protective ring. She’s responsible for keeping them safe, and has done so successfully for decades. If she says to fight, they fight. 

Keith and Shiro line up back to back and wait for the guards to come to them, which they inevitably do. Keith imagines they expected frail politicians. More poor training on their part. 

They find an easy rhythm. It almost feels like dancing and Keith imagines he hears strains of music as they work through the guards. Warmth spreads up his leg where Shiro’s heel is braced against his own. It’s like holding hands, Keith thinks, and he leans back to nudge against Shiro. Shiro turns just enough to give Keith a small, private smile. He feels it, too, and Keith’s heart swells in his chest. 

Time slows as the familiar sounds of combat blend around them. Grunts and breaths and curses over the smack, slide, and impact of contact and follow-through. Over and over across long minutes. 

The guards are poor fighters, but have them beaten in numbers. While they’re able to turn away those that approach them with easy blocks and passes, they’re not making any progress toward clearing a path, and for every one guard they turn away three replacement guards seem to turn up out of thin air. Shiro is using the guards’ own momentum to put them down while conserving his energy, but even so, Keith can sense him tiring. They aren’t in their 20’s anymore, and while they’re active for their age, 10 minutes of fighting is about all they have in them. 

A stiff breeze picks up as Keith is evaluating their options for escape or surrender, knowing that both Acxa and Shiro are probably doing the same. And then he hears his name. He looks up to find the source of the breeze, now a stiff wind, is a New Altean shuttle. 

“Need a lift?” Allura is leaning out the side door of the shuttle. Shiro’s body sags in relief. He reaches up and she easily lifts him to her side. Keith grabs Shiro’s leg above the ankle and she pulls them both up. 

Ezor, Acxa, and Zethrid salute to the receding aircraft from the ground and melt into the fray. 

“God, I hope they don’t cause another intergalactic incident,” Keith whispers like a prayer. 

“That never gets old, princess.” Shiro chuckles to Allura, brushing the dust off his suit and checking Keith for injuries. 

“At least something in this shuttle doesn’t,” she smirks, winking at the aging humans she just lifted to safety. “Ready to go?” 

“As we’ll ever be.” 

Allura nods and disappears through the door to the cockpit.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” Shiro says, brushing his lips across Keith’s knuckles as they settle into their seats. “Happy anniversary, baby.” 

Keith slaps his hand to his forehead and drags it down his face. “Oh no. Our reservation.”

“Reservation?” Shiro looks perplexed.

Keith waves his hands around. “I was going to do this big thing tonight. I had a reservation at that restaurant where the one wall is just a giant aquarium. They have these bioluminescent jellies that glow and they say it looks like the night sky. I thought you would like it,” Keith trails off at the end. 

Shiro’s heart squeezes as he looks at his crestfallen husband. He picks up his hand and holds it to his chest. “I like anything I do with you.” 

“Good. ‘Cause it looks like instead of a romantic dinner with fancy dessert and twinkling sea life, we’ll be on a 2 hour military charter with no air conditioning and disgruntled grandkids on arrival,” Keith sighs. 

“There’s nowhere I’d rather be than here with you.” Shiro kisses Keith’s hand again. He pulls out his vitamins in their plastic box sorted by day and metes out ibuprofen, which Keith swallows dry gratefully. Shiro pulls out a little blue pill and pops it next, winking at Keith as he does. 

“You didn’t.” 

“I did.”

“Shiro, this is not a long flight. There are people right there.” Keith motions to the cockpit door. 

“That door locks. These seats are cushy enough,” Shiro says, bouncing on the jump seat for good measure.

“Oh my god, you’re hopeless,” Keith chuckles as Shiro pulls him in for a kiss. 

In the cockpit, the captain looks over his shoulder. “Shouldn’t we check on the president, princess?”

Allura turns to the door and then looks at the clock on the pilot’s display. “I’d give them at least 15 minutes, captain. Trust me.”

**Author's Note:**

> I love "elderly" sheith and couldn't decide which direction to go with this prompt. So I did what any reasonable person would do and wrote both. 
> 
> Here's the other: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26498929


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